Life Goes On
by Linz005
Summary: AU-Post-Gift: Buffy is dead and not resurrected. Dawn must go to live with her father and a certain vamp follows. Will her life change even more? (one-shot Spawn)


Title: Life Goes On  
  
Summary: This is a one shot, semi song fic...AU: In the aftermath of The Gift, Dawn is taken to LA by her father because even without the Slayer life goes on...Spike wouldn't let her leave alone though.  
  
A/N: It's SPAWN!! Having said this please don't post flames about the pairing.  
  
Disclaimer: BtVS doesn't belong to me...I know you're probably shocked to find out but it is true. The excerpts from songs used belong to those people named after the excerpt and probably other people.

* * *

When I am down, and oh my soul so weary  
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be  
Then I am still and wait here in the silence  
Until you come and sit awhile with me. Josh Groban

* * *

Dawn sat alone in her room after school. That was all she ever did. She spent her life waiting. A part of her was still waiting to wake up from this nightmare where Buffy was dead and she had been sent to live with her father. Dawn barely knew her father and he knew even less about her. Dawn vaguely remembered being happy in LA when she was younger, but that had never truly happened. Hank Summers didn't even know that his daughter wasn't even his daughter.  
  
A new Slayer had come to Sunnydale after Buffy died. Her name was Kennedy and Dawn couldn't bear to look at her. It was too painful to see someone with her sister's strength and her sister's powers, who wasn't her sister. It seemed a horrifying irony that life went on after tragedies. Dawn thought it should have stopped at least for a little while. The Scoobies had had no way to stop Hank from taking his daughter away. They had tried which meant a lot to Dawn. A part of her was glad to be away.  
  
Los Angeles though about ten times bigger than Sunnydale with about forty-five more Starbucks coffee shops, was much quieter than life on the hellmouth. Dawn hadn't really known how to handle her new found normalcy and was glad the night she first saw Spike lurking outside her father's house.  
  
Flashback  
"'Ello, Bit. I was waiting for your dad to leave." Dawn nodded and smiled at him. "It'd be kinda hard to explain me to him, eh?" Dawn simply nodded again. She didn't talk much anymore. Spike missed his Dawn who used to talk to him constantly about anything. "Don't even get a hello?" Spike pressed on upset that Dawn wasn't talking. Dawn collapsed against his chest, a few silent tears falling down her cheeks onto his black tee.  
  
"I've missed you so much Spike. I thought you would come because of the promise you made to Buffy, but then you weren't here. I'm so lonely. I have like no friends and I barely know my father." Spike wrapped his strong arms around her.  
  
"That's more like it." Dawn leaned back looking up at his face surprised that he liked her outburst. "'S not that I like to see tears or pain on your pretty little face, but you always told me everything, niblet. I was worried you'd stopped talking to the Big Bad." He held Dawn tighter and she lay her head back on his chest. Spike moved his hand into her hair to soothe her. "I didn't come because of the promise, bit. I came because of you." Flashback  
  
Every night after that, Dawn had left her window open for Spike to come in. He patrolled her neighborhood to make sure that Dawn was completely safe in her new home and then he would come to her. Sometimes, she would be asleep when Spike came, sitting in her window seat beside the window. Spike would gently move her to her bed and stay with her until he had to leave.  
  
Tonight, though, Dawn sat in her window once the sunset and did her homework waiting for the familiar smell of leather and cigarettes to make its way up to her room. Even though it was a Friday, she figured getting her homework out of the way would be a good idea. That way she could spend every minute with Spike. He had given her a key to his apartment (a big step up from the crypt) and she would often spend the days with him there in the darkness.  
  
Dawn looked out at the stars shining in the night sky. She made a silent wish that Spike would never leave her though a part of her knew he never would. She took a deep breath and knew he was standing on the balcony watching her.

* * *

Restless tonight  
Cause I wasted the light  
Between both these times  
I drew a really thin line  
It's nothing I planned  
And not that I can  
But you should be mine  
Across that line Finger Eleven

* * *

Spike looked at Dawn for a long moment seeing how the moon illuminated her features. God she was beautiful and for one of the few times in his undead existence Spike wished he could see Dawn bathed in sunlight. He was beginning to think there was no more sunlight in her life. She was with him whenever possible and he lived in the darkness. Spike knew it was a double edged sword. If he wished he had never been turned then he never would have met Dawn and if he wished she were a vamp...well that went without saying.  
  
Spike didn't realize that Dawn knew he was there. When he didn't move or say anything to her, Dawn that it was time that she spoke up. "I thought vampires were supposed to be all equipped with the stealth?" Dawn joked before turning her head slightly to look at him.  
  
"There was a time, bit, when you wouldn't have known I was here for hours." Spike smirked and moved toward the window stepping inside. "'S just that you spend so much time with me. Can't get enough and all that." Dawn playfully hit Spike's arm and rolled her eyes.  
  
"I guess I have memorized you. That sounded weird even to me." Dawn said blushing slightly.  
  
"Makes perfect sense to me, pet. Is your dad home?" Dawn shook her head indicating that they didn't have to worry about being heard. "I've memorized you too, bit. The way you look when you're waiting for me..." He smirked again sitting on Dawn's bed and taking a bag of blood out of his pocket. "You mind, bit?"  
  
"Do I ever? Besides I can tell you're hungry." Dawn said a bit proudly. Spike was a bit taken back in turn. He didn't realize his Dawnie was so well versed on vampire eating habits.  
  
"How so, bit?" Spike opened the bag and vamped out in game face before beginning to drink it.  
  
"That for one thing. You only turn all bumpy when you're really hungry. That and you're keeping your distance. I told you, I've memorized you." Dawn smiled at him putting her books aside. Spike finished his blood and was about to shift back to his human visage. "Wait." Spike obeyed and Dawn reached her fingers up to his forehead tracing the ridges. Spike avoided eye contact, but didn't stop her until her finger reached for his fang. He grabbed her wrist sharply.  
  
"No." Spike shifted back and then let go of her wrist. Dawn looked at him slightly perplexed. "You can't go there, bit. It's something you shouldn't know, shouldn't feel. You're too innocent, too perfect."  
  
"I'm not a little kid, Spike."  
  
"Did I ever say that you were?" Dawn shrugged sitting down next to him. "You can be innocent and not a child. I don't want that...I mean me to touch you." Dawn laughed a little. "What's so funny?"  
  
"Nothing, just thinking about a little fantasy of mine. Forget it."  
  
"Fantasy, eh? About me?"  
  
"Well, I used to have a crush on you Spike."  
  
"Used to." Dawn nodded. "So you used to think about the Big Bad touching you?" Dawn nodded again. "But not anymore?"  
  
"I didn't say that." Now Spike looked perplexed. "I used to have a crush on you, but now...I have feelings for you real feelings." Dawn looked away embarrassed to have said it. "It's been almost a year since...you know. And you're the one always there. You pick me up when I fall and carry me when I need it." Spike leaned down towards Dawn and gently kissed her lips. When he pulled away, Dawn moved her hand into his hair and pushed his lips back onto hers allowing his tongue to enter her mouth as well.

* * *

Fear not the flame of my love's candle  
Let it be the sun in your world of darkness Evanescence

* * *

Spike pulled back once more knowing that Dawn needed oxygen at some point. He rested his hand on her cheek massaging it gently with his thumb. "You really are beautiful. I love you, Dawn."  
  
"I love you, too, Spike. I've never felt this way about anyone. I want to be with you for every minute of every day." Spike took in an unneeded breath so that he could sigh.  
  
"I wish that was possible, niblet, with my whole unbeating heart." Dawn rested her head on his shoulder.  
  
"It is completely impossible. You could turn me..." Dawn's voice trailed off.  
  
"Not even if you begged me, pet. I won't curse you..."  
  
"Curse me?" Spike always seemed so keen on being a vampire and now he called it a curse.  
  
"I like being a vampire and all that, but there have been times where it's almost unbearable. You have to watch people die, watch time go by and you lose the light. I don't want you to live in the darkness with me. You shine too bright to be put out...You're effulgent." Spike kissed the top of her head holding her close to his chest.  
  
"But don't you see? That's why you should turn me." Spike went to protest. "No, I have no one, but you. I wasn't real until what a few years ago. There's still the possibility that the Key could still be used. What better way to protect me than to arm me with vampiric senses and..."  
  
"Blood lust, soulless existence...Yeah lots 'a perks there, niblet."  
  
"You don't have soul and you're not evil."  
  
"But I was. I did horrible things and I didn't care. If I could get rid of this chip, a big part of me would want to go back to that. To the pain and violence."  
  
"Then let me come with you. Let me be your light and soul forever. I know about vampires. As my sire, you could make me be anyway you want. It all depends on what you tell me when you first teach me. Let me be with you. Don't be afraid. I want this." Dawn bared her throat at Spike.

* * *

You walk past me, I can feel your pain  
Time changes everything  
One truth always stays the same  
You're still you  
After all  
You're still you Josh Groban

* * *

The smell of Dawn's blood and the pounding of her heart were absolutely intoxicating. Spike felt the muscles in his face shift and he felt the demon rising closer to the surface. He brushed his fangs against her neck debating whether to bite or not. Did he want Dawn to be his mate? He knew the answer was yes, but he wanted his Dawn not someone else. You can have that. Don't be a bleeding ponce. He heard a voice in the back of his mind.  
  
Dawn knew what she was talking about though he didn't know where she had learned it. The Sire had power over his Childe. Angelus had used his power as Grandsire to make Spike a monster, but Spike could make Dawn be different, be like him. Good, but still dark. The thought of the two of them spending eternity together was too much to take. Spike bit into her fragile neck draining her dry. He made a gash in his own chest and fed her from that.  
  
Spike's love lay lifeless in his arms. He held her close to his chest moving through the still dark streets of LA. He headed for the cemetery and found an empty crypt. Dawn would be his only Childe and would there for be invariably stronger than most fledglings, she'd be a Master vampire. She needed the fight though. Spike pushed back the lid of a stone sarcophagus. He laid Dawn inside and waited for her to wake.  
  
The next night, Spike could sense Dawn moving in the casket. He heard he nails clawing at the stone and hitting it fiercely until she finally used her strength to push it off of her. She stood up in full game face stepping over the side of the coffin.  
  
"Sire." Dawn said dreamily looking at him.  
  
"Come here." Spike said fiercely as a command. Dawn hadn't the power to refuse. Spike shifted into game face and bit his Childe to claim her. "You are my Childe, Dawn. Don't forget that."  
  
"Never Sire. I mean Spike." Dawn shook her head to clear it. "I remember things now. I remember what we said and I don't want to hurt anyone."  
  
"You won't hurt anyone, Childe." Spike used his Sire voice once more and Dawn nodded her understanding. She couldn't hurt anyone now, if she wanted to. Not without Spike's consent. Dawn felt her face and noticed the bumps and ridges. She looked up at Spike. "Pull back the demon. Push it down and..." Spike took a bag of blood from his pocket he had picked up before she woke. "Drink this. It's instinct, love." Dawn drank it. She was amazed at how rich it was slipping down her throat. Her senses were so strong and so was she.  
  
Two months passed. Spike taught Dawn what she needed to do to control her demon such as meditating and keeping it well fed. He never needed to use his blood connection to control her. She was still his Dawn and now she was his completely. Spike picked up a newspaper one day, though, that changed everything.  
  
"Dawn, love, we need to leave LA."  
  
"Why?" Spike put the newspaper down in front of her and her mouth formed a silent o. "Dad, thinks I'm missing. So what I don't think he'll find us. We are pretty nocturnal and all."  
  
"'S not your dad I'm worried about. The Scoobies will come looking for you. I don't want either of us to wake up as big piles of dust. They don't understand that you are the same. They'll want to give you a soul or kill you and most definitely kill me."  
  
"Then we'll leave. Take me away, my wonderful Spike. Show me the world." Spike kissed Dawn passionately. And life would go on for the two and on and on...


End file.
